The representation is not just about having sort of a census on screen of how many Muslims

are really in America or how many Muslims are in the world, but it's also about undoing

the centuries of dangerous and problematic tropes that we have all been socialized into, causing

not only hatred of other folks, but internalized Islamophobia and internalized depression

from our communities, particularly children. And so I guess my encouragement to all of us would be to

ask ourselves, who are you outside of the bounds of xenophobia and Islamophobia and racism?

And as soon as we start to ask ourselves that, it's going to free us to imagine a better world,

but also to imagine better stories. It'll give us the opportunity to say, I have another story

inside me and I want to share it. So I think once we start to move away from that dichotomy of the

good, Muslim, bad Muslim, and just ask ask what could A Muslim be that folks have not

gotten the opportunity to see before. We've got a real opportunity to do something game-changing.

Raise your hand if you grew up believing that you wanted to be Jasmine from Aladdin,

only to realize that this movie was perpetuating orientalist stereotypes of the Middle East and Asia.

Keep your hand raised if you're exhausted with the idea that being Muslim and being accepted by society are mutually exclusive.

Don't you think it's time that we deserve more accurate portrayals

of Muslims in media? You're listening to Unsween and Unfiltered the podcast episode 20 of

Season 3. If you've caught yourself holding your breath when you've seen a Muslim cross-door

television screens, you're not alone. You're silently hoping that this Muslim character

won't be portrayed as the villain, the terrorist,

or someone who is oppressed and needs to be detached from their faith if they want to be

accepted by others.

Frankly, we are tired of these negative tropes and stereotypes that have been overdone for decades

...